I see lilacs in the rain,
And you are with me again,
When April sprinkles her dreams in my heart.
When we parted in the lane,
The skies were tearful with rain,
The scent of lilacs remained in my heart.
Arriving at the end of April, the two more typically calamitous months of spring are behind us, and the joyous promise of May is at last at hand. Before we leave this month, however, a little look back at the tender pockets of beauty and longing that were found between days of snowy chill and frosty places. Many give March the dramatic distinction of being the most changeable month – lion and lamb and all those animal metaphors – but April has always struck me as the most transformative. This year proved that true, as winter seemed to linger well into the month, wreaking havoc with snow-weary hearts – a final, extended test and trial of how indomitable the spirit could be. We reprise this song that appeared in earlier form here – it rings differently after spring outpaces winter.
A lot can happen in a single month, especially when it’s spring. Hearts break open then, thawing as much from the warmer days and nights as from emotional circumstance and the whims of a capricious universe. And we are nothing if not in thrall to our hearts – even when our heads are screaming otherwise.
Two other arms around you now,
Some other love has found you now!
But when love forgets to smile,
My darling, once in a while,
Remember April and lilacs in the rain!
And so we reach the end of this treacherous month, when ephemerals like crocus and snowdrops bravely poked their heads into the early spring world, nodding at each other and saying hello, romancing and entrancing with their all-too-brief dance before going away for another year. We say goodbye to those sweet romances, doomed not to last, as we set up a more enduring element to the summer to come – the fiery, quickly-extinguished flames of floral dalliance evolving into the propriety of friendship to see us all the way through to fall.
When we parted in the lane,
The skies were tearful with rain,
The scent of lilacs remained in my heart.
